2016 Annual Statistical Report - Adventist Archives

1 2016 Annual Statistical Report 152nd Report of the General Conference of seventh -day Adventists for 2014 and 2015(Revisions made 2-Feb-2017. See last page for list of changes.)12501 Old Columbia Pike Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6600 Statistical REPORTof seventh -day Adventist Conferences, Missions, and Institutions Throughout the Worldfor the Year Ending December 31, 2014 (including year-end membership statistics for 2015)ABOUT THIS Report : A RECORD YEAR FOR CHURCH GROWTHA bout this Edition of the ASR. This, the 152nd annualreport of seventh -day Adventist statistics, publishesmembership and congregational statistics as of December31, 2015, and institutional, financial, and personnel statisticsas of December 31, 2014.

2 Because the Global MissionTables draw on a combination of membership,congregational, and personnel statistics, those tables ( 91) Report data from 2014. The Report includes colorcharts illustrating key statistics and Statistical trends (pp. 5 6), as well as the color map of the 10/40 Window (p. 92).A Growing Church. 2015 was a landmark year forAdventist church growth: the total of 1,260,880 people whobecame seventh -day Adventists by baptism and professionof faith was a new record for total accessions in a calendaryear (see Chart 1). This was the fourteenth year in all and thetwelfth year in succession in which more than a million newmembers joined the seventh -day Adventist Church.

3 Onaverage, across the year, there were 144 new accessionsevery hour, or, as Chart 4 displays, the equivalent of 3,452new church members per day. Thus, every day in 2015 waslike the day of Pentecost in the numbers of believers added tothe seventh -day Adventist Church. A daily average of 3,000-plus accessions was first attained only in 2007 (though thechurch came close in 1999), and since then has beenrepeated in 2011, 2012, 2014 and now 2015 (cf. Chart 4).The net result is that the global population to churchmember ratio continues to improve, as shown in Chart 5(which tracks the Annual population:member ratio over thelast twenty-five years).

4 At the end of 2015 there were 384people, worldwide, to every seventh -day Adventist . In otherwords, global church growth continues to exceed the growthin the world s Churches. Another area of significant growthis in local congregations (churches and companies); success-ful church planting is a large part of the reason for the dozenyears of million-plus accessions in membership. Chart 3 illus-trates the numbers of new congregations organized eachyear over the past five years. The 2015 total of 3,438 is theeighth highest Annual total ever and the highest since only at the number of new local churches ( , notincluding companies), 2,742 new churches were organized in2015: another new record for a calendar year (2014 was theprevious record!)

5 Membership Audits. There was a tailing off, in 2015, inthe global program of membership audits, probably due to theGeneral Conference Session. As Chart 1 shows, the numberof people taken off the membership rolls was just over half amillion in 2015, as compared to just over three-quarters of amillion in 2014. The audit program, however, will continue and needs to continue, as Chart 2 reveals. As noted in the preface to last year s Report , a key metricin checking the accuracy of membership statistics is themortality rate: the number of deaths per thousand people in apopulation. By comparing Adventist mortality rates with thoseof the population as a whole in any given territory, it ispossible to get a good sense of whether the reportedmembership is credible.

6 Chart 2 compares Adventist togeneral mortality rates in the church s thirteen world divisionsand two attached fields; it reveals that in many divisions theAdventist mortality rate is far lower than the general mortalityrate, to such an extent that the difference cannot beaccounted for by the Adventist health advantage. Severaldivisions are now closer to a credible mortality rate than in2011 when Annual Council encouraged all divisions toimplement comprehensive audits. Many unions, however,have still not yet completed audits; when they do, weanticipate that mortality rates will become more this quinquennium, audits will continue tosuppress net growth rates as they identify and deduct thosewho may have left some time ago, but whose departure wasnot picked up at the time.

7 The effect of these audits isillustrated in Chart Tables. This is the second year in which the Missionaries table (Table 19) has used different metrics, togive a more accurate count of the number of missionaries inservice. In 2014 a total of 5,816 missionaries were in service(either as cross-cultural missionaries or working withpreviously unreached people groups). We thank God for thewillingness of these church members to leave their homesand go outside their comfort zones, in order to help proclaimthe gospel and the prophetic messages of the angels ofRevelation 14. In addition, a major change to Tables 20, 21, and 24,which Report employee statistics, reflects a significant shift indenominational policy: all categories of employees are nowbroken down into full-time, part-time, and (where applicable)casual employees.

8 This reflects the fact that Working Policy(E 10 80) has been amended, allowing divisions to issuecredentials to part-time employees (previously Policy onlyprovided for credentials to be awarded to full-time workers). Statistical REPORT3 TABLE OF CONTENTSA ccessions, Table 1 .. 4 Church Membership by World Divisions, Table 2.. 4 General Survey of Organizations, Table 3 .. 4 Summary of Institutions, Table 4 .. 4 Tithe and Offerings 2014, Table 5 .. 4 Tithe and Offerings, Table 6 .. 4 Changes in Membership, Chart 1 .. 5 Global Mortality Rates, 2015, Chart 2 .. 5 New Congregations Organized Each Year, Chart 3.

9 6 Average Accessions Per Day, Chart 4 .. 6 Ratio of General Population Per Adventist Member, Chart 5.. 6 General and Institutional Employees, Table 7 .. 7 Literature Evangelists, Table 8 .. 7 Food Industries, Table 9.. 7 Publishing, Table 10 .. 7 Women s Ministries, Table 11.. 7 Youth Ministries, Table 12 .. 7 Children s Ministries, Table 13 .. 8 Healthcare Institutions, Table 14 .. 8 Count of Unions, Conferences, and Local Fields, Table 15 .. 8 Broadcast Ministries, Table 16 .. 8 Sabbath school and Personal Ministries, Table 17 .. 9 Education, Table 18 .. 9 Missionaries, Table 19 .. 9 Denominationally Employed Workers Classified by Type of Employment 2014, Table 20.

10 10 Denominationally Employed Workers Classified by Credentials Carried 2014, Table 21 .. 10 Membership Statistics by Division for 2015, Table 22 .. 12 Tithes and Offerings by Division 2014, Table 23 .. 31 Denominational Employees by Division 2014, Table 24 .. 49 Institutional Statistics for 2014.. 74 Section I Educational Institutions and Primary Schools, Table 25 .. 74 Section II Healthcare Institutions, Table 26 .. 78 Section III Publishing Houses, Table 27 .. 83 Section IV Food Industries, Table 28 .. 84 Adventist Development and Relief Agency International (ADRA), Tables 29, 30 .. 85 Global Mission .. 86 The Church s Presence, Outreach, and Mission.